I thought it was just a one off case, but it seems not.
Vampires have the Dominate action, which lets them cast the rank 6 dominate spell. The issue is that the rank of the spell does not depend on the level of the vampire. A level 6 vampire will be casting rank 6 dominate against level 8 players. A level 20 vampire will be casting rank 6 dominate against level 17 players. The former is a big threat. The latter is rather ineffectual.
The Satyr was also brought to my attention. It's level 4, but it can cast rank 4 suggestion or sleep, and it can do so in a 60 foot emanation.
Coven monsters can also whip out a rank 8 cursed metamorphosis, but it's a group effort to do it, so it's probably fine?
That could definitely cause some problems, although since players have access to hero points, crit failing one check isn't as bad for them as it is for monsters.
It's also worth considering whether or not these monsters are likely to be used as low level enemies in fights against higher level parties. This is where I wish that some enemies had alternate options for whether they are being used as minions or bosses.
Vampires have the Dominate action, which lets them cast the rank 6 dominate spell. The issue is that the rank of the spell does not depend on the level of the vampire. A level 6 vampire will be casting rank 6 dominate against level 8 players. A level 20 vampire will be casting rank 6 dominate against level 17 players. The former is a big threat. The latter is rather ineffectual.
I'm questioning that point.
Looking through the rules for Innate Spells I can see where it gives the general rule that the Satyr uses to be allowed to cast its Rank 4 innate spells.
But I am not seeing anywhere that requires an ability like the Vampire Count's Dominate ability to not also be increased when the GM levels up the creature to a higher level to use against a higher level party.
I do see where the creature cannot heighten an innate spell. But that is not the same thing. When creating a level 20 Vampire Count, the GM can give it a Dominate ability that casts a Rank 8 or Rank 9 Dominate spell.
So what I don't see in the rules is where it says that an innate spell must be granted at its lowest base Rank. Nothing is requiring that every Vampire that has the Dominate ability is casting it at Rank 6.
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You could *design* a vampire with a rank 8 dominate if you wanted. But if you just wrote "dominate" without anything else, it'd be the base rank of the spell.
Innate *cantrips* heighten automatically as normal, but for other spells, it has to be an explicit decision.
That could definitely cause some problems, although since players have access to hero points, crit failing one check isn't as bad for them as it is for monsters.
It's also worth considering whether or not these monsters are likely to be used as low level enemies in fights against higher level parties. This is where I wish that some enemies had alternate options for whether they are being used as minions or bosses.
The Satyr is definitely meant to be used alongside other Satyrs, because satyrs are immune to the emanation, and the temporary immunity is on a per-satyr basis.
A level 6 party against 4 satyrs would be a moderate encounter. In the first round, one satyr could cast sleep on the entire party, forcing a Will save against falling unconscious for 1 round. Second satyr could do the same next round. And so on until round 5.
While that would be a nuisance, the satyrs' only options for damage are Strikes with damage beneath low, so this might not be a TPK waiting to happen.
You could *design* a vampire with a rank 8 dominate if you wanted. But if you just wrote "dominate" without anything else, it'd be the base rank of the spell.
Innate *cantrips* heighten automatically as normal, but for other spells, it has to be an explicit decision.
Agreed.
I'm also considering that aside from a Unique creature from an AP, none of the other Vampire family creatures are high enough level to cast the Rank 6 base version of the spell without the rule about being allowed to cast innate spells regardless of Rank.
So taking a level 6 creature and rewriting it as a level 20 creature is also an explicit decision. One that involves looking at all of the creature's abilities as well as their attack, damage, and HP stats.
You could *design* a vampire with a rank 8 dominate if you wanted. But if you just wrote "dominate" without anything else, it'd be the base rank of the spell.
Innate *cantrips* heighten automatically as normal, but for other spells, it has to be an explicit decision.
Agreed.
I'm also considering that aside from a Unique creature from an AP, none of the other Vampire family creatures are high enough level to cast the Rank 6 base version of the spell without the rule about being allowed to cast innate spells regardless of Rank.
So taking a level 6 creature and rewriting it as a level 20 creature is also an explicit decision. One that involves looking at all of the creature's abilities as well as their attack, damage, and HP stats.
Although that AP boss is the only vampire beyond 12th level, we are definitely intended to be able to (and should be able to) create such vampires using the vampire template, because that template contains guidelines for making a vampire with a starting level of 15 or higher.
The author of the action itself seems to have not considered the incap trait when designing this template action, which is an issue because that action was made to be generally applied as part of the vampire template. I think an easy fix here is to simply adjust the action.
Dominate [two-actions] (divine, incapacitation, mental, visual) The vampire can cast dominate at will as a divine innate spell. Use the vampire's level instead of the spell's rank for the purpose of the spell's incapacitation trait and counteract rank. Casting it requires staring into the target's eyes, giving the spell the visual trait. The save DC uses the high spell DC of the vampire's level, and a creature that succeeds is temporarily immune to that vampire's Dominate for 24 hours. Fully destroying the vampire ends the domination, but merely reducing the vampire to 0 HP is insufficient to break the spell.
Having it actually auto-heighten simply wouldn't do, because the dominate spell gains an unlimited duration at 10th rank. Combine that with Dominate's only usage limit being per-creature, and you've got a vampire with infinite forever slaves.